Want to know where your tax dollars go? Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka unveiled a website Monday that can help you sort through the financial information of any government entity you're interested in.

There's a lot of good general information at warehouse.illinoiscomptroller.com — expenditures, property tax and sales tax revenues, etc. — and it is pretty easy to use. However, some entries require an explanation.

For example, if you look up Winnebago County and click on the "Capital Outlay" link, you only see zeroes. Seems there should be some numbers there and the fine print at the bottom doesn't help you figure out why there are no entries. You can make an educated guess, i.e., the information wasn't filled out, but it would be better to be sure.

We'd like to see more specific information. The site shows where money is spent by categories (financial administration, corrections), but we'd prefer to see who checks are being written to. Putting a taxing entity's entire checkbook online seems like a reasonable next step.

Also, we'd like to see a list of contractors. Who is the county, the city, the township, the Park District, etc., doing business with? Knowing that can help taxpayers spot any potential conflicts of interest.

Still, the information Topinka and her staff have helped taxpayers access is more than what they can get from most government websites.

The Illinois Policy Institute recently did a transparency audit on county websites and the results were troubling.

Of Illinois 102 counties, 22 did not even have a website. Of the rest, the average score for these counties was 32.8 out of a possible 100 points.

That's inexcusable.

Kudos to Topinka and staff for adding a bit of light to a state darkened by corruption. More is needed, but it's a good start.

Growth at the airport: The key to continued economic growth in the Rock River Valley is to help companies that are already here grow. That's what's happening at Chicago Rockford International Airport, where Emery Air added 30 aviation mechanics in the past several months.

Emery, which sells fuel and provides maintenance and repair on aircraft for regional airlines and business jets, has 165 employees and contractors. It needs more hangar space for maintenance work on Q400s flown by United Express. The airport board looks like it will make that happen.

Imagine a taxing body breaking down barriers and making it easier for a business to expand. That's what the airport board and Director Mike Dunn are doing.

Page 2 of 2 - Other government entities should emulate them.

Playoffs: It's a great time of year for high school football fans. The playoffs begin this weekend and 19 teams in the Register Star's coverage area hope they can advance toward a state championship.